29th December 2015

A beautiful morning in Herefordshire, the sun shone and the air was sharp.

Lamanver Alchemy, Kelsey, Chase End Charlie and Very Intense schooled over hurdles. Tommie O’Brien and I rode them. All jumped well and are now set for their races over the next few days. Pinnacle Panda will head to Uttoxeter with Kelsey having worked nicely this morning. Singlefarmpayment did his last half speed bit of work in preparation for Cheltenham on Friday. We increased the work load of the others having backed off them over Christmas and the week or 2 leading up to Christmas. They all seem to be on the upward curve having suffered from no more than a head cold through December.

This afternoon, I had the task of swapping hurdles for fences on the schooling strip; if only I could afford Easy Fix life would be so much easier. The traditional birch ones I have are costly to maintain and a pain to manoeuvre on and off the strip. However, there’s a lot to like about them and I do prefer to school over them in preference to Easy Fix. I think young horses jump them better. Tomorrow all the 3 year olds and a couple of older horses will school.

Neal Griffiths and Heather Haddock were here late afternoon to see and discuss plans for their horses.

Paper work is building up in the office yet I can’t get started on it. How I envy trainers with secretaries and gallop men.